GOC

Intridea Inc has announced the general availability of CrowdSound. For $10 per month, enterprise and social networking Web sites can get customer feedback and gather, organize and respond to suggestions using this new on-demand social feedback tool.

 

According to Intridea, a developer of Web 2.0 applications and services to help enterprises realize the power of cloud computing and social networking, CrowdSound comes at a cheap price because it is built on a basic Web developing program. With the solution, businesses of all sizes can quickly realize the power of interactive, Web-based customer feedback.

 

Intridea solutions are based on the Ruby on Rails Web application framework for agile development.

 

“Too often, customers who submit online feedbacks have no way of knowing if anyone in the company is really listening or if other consumers feel the same way,” said Pradeep Elankumaran, Intridea’s director of R&D, and the product manager of CrowdSound.

 

“With CrowdSound, a customer suggestion represents, not just a single voice, but also the voices of other users who vote and comment on it; increasing the likelihood that a company will listen and act.”

 

Last month, the beta version of CrowdSound was released and this full version has several new enhancements such as, Apple (News - Alert) iPhone integration to reach mobile customers; Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted communication for increased security and privacy; a “private suggestions” option, in which customer responses are only seen by the Web site owners; profanity filtering to focus on constructive criticism; customizable suggestion categories to cultivate more relevant responses for the business; easily customizable colors and a look-and-feel for more seamless integration; and an additional, secondary hosted service that does not require the customer to have its own Web site.

 

“The role of the Web in opening a customer dialogue is invaluable. However until now, enterprises have had to choose between building their own tightly integrated social feedback capabilities or purchasing a bolted-on product,” said Dave Naffis, Intridea founding partner and director of product development.

 

“With CrowdSound companies for the first time can realize fast, off-the-shelf deployment coupled with seamless integration that puts customer feedback and company responses at the center of enterprise business processes.”

 

CrowdSound establishes a direct contact with the customers for companies through which they can gather straight transparent info rather then subjecting them to the cumbersome activity of going through a questionnaire or pages. The standards-based, highly customizable tool seamlessly integrates with an enterprise Website or social networking site, while providing a tailored look-and-feel that highlights the company brand.

 

And also not just getting feedback, enterprises can reply to their customers on their suggestions. They can also merge the tags of CrowdSound into their existing infrastructure and workflow. As a result, customer input is tied back into enterprise business processes for customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, product development, and more.  

 

CrowdSound is available as a standalone social feedback tool or as an add-on to Intridea’s SocialSpring social networking solution. The on-demand tool costs $10 per month and offers unlimited websites for each user account. Pricing for the on-demand version of SocialSpring starts at $5,000 per month.